"In the fifties," says Brian Lister, "you still had two distinct types of successful racing car designers. There were the designer / artists, such as John Cooper and myself, people with an engineering background who designed intuitively, and the designer / scientists such as Colin Chapman. I happen to have been involved in racing at the right time and when we had to make the decision to quit, in...

Still Porsches, but the Jaguars looked good
Speed, colour and variety are three descriptive words which immediately come to mind to describe the Daytona 24-Hour race, opening round of the American IMSA series run the first weekend in February. Seeing no end to the deadlock between FISA and IMSA, Porsche gave their new 962 model its debut on the famous tri-oval track, driven by Mario and Mike...

Memories of the Fifties
Art Evans
Art Evans’ latest overview of US sports car racing is extremely thorough and covers 74 models, with drivers describing their personal experiences with the car in question. Each chapter also includes a short biography of a driver associated with that particular car; the likes of Enzo Ferrari, Ferry Porsche and John Cooper are all covered. Some of the photos on the...

Phoenix in waiting
A distinctive 1960s racer is coming under the hammer, but will need lashings of TLC
I will declare an interest. I offer consultancy advice (often justifiably ignored) to auctioneer Bonhams, whose Goodwood Festival of Speed sale includes some real rarities. Among these are the (hopefully) still restorable remains of a uniquely significant ex-Jim Clark sports-racing car – the...

Reflections on the only man to win Formula 1 titles as both driver and constructor, by a Motor Sport contributor who knew him well
Writer Doug Nye
On hearing of Sir Jack Brabham’s recent death – at the age of 88 – Australian enthusiast Alec Hawkins sat down at a computer keyboard and submitted the following to one of the internet motor racing forums. I believe his words speak for a generation of...

Returning to Indy, Monaco’s faded glamour, Rosberg’s guile
Sometimes,” wrote Henry Manney in Road and Track half a century ago, “I wish I was in Indianapolis. But not often.”
Time was when the Indianapolis 500 was always run – whatever the day of the week – on May 30, Memorial Day, and a public holiday in the USA. And time was, too, when virtually the whole of the month of May, which included two...

Penske Racing's car-building offshoot in Poole may be run on deadly efficient lines, but the man in charge is also one of the great motor sport enthusiasts
It has been said of Nick Goozée that you can see all four seasons in a day on his face, but the fact that he's the one saying it tells you a lot about the man.
"I guess I am lucky, because I probably struck right at the period of time. If you...

Spectacle trumps soundWizards of OzAndretti's concorde offer
Back in the day it was my invariable habit, for final qualifying at Monte Carlo, to position myself immediately behind the guardrail somewhere close to the left-right entry to the swimming pool area. Then defined by solid masonry rather than white lines, it was a place that rewarded the bravest, as well as the most deft, and in 1985 I...

The British Empire Trophy, one of Britain's oldest races has been held yearly except for the war years since 1932, but has seldom proved a racing or commercial success. The latest in the series, held as a F2 race on Saturday, April 11th, did little to disprove this reputation.
The first Empire Trophy race was won by John Cobb in the 10-1/2-litre Delage on the Brooklands Outer Circuit at 126.36 m....

For Gordon Murray, the cooper-climax had it all. Great concept, simplicity and lightness. And it trounced its big-budged rivals.
When I think back to GP design milestones, it's pretty obvious, really: the first rear-engined Fl Cooper. Not so much from a technical point of view even though it was after my own heart from that aspect because it was so simple and so effective compared to the other...